The present invention relates to systems and methods for identifying the location of a communication device, and in particular to systems and methods for identifying the location of a device originating a communication and/or providing location information to an emergency services dispatcher.
In traditional land based telephone systems, a call is passed to public safety answering point with a generally available call back number that is associated with a fixed physical location of the originating telephone. The call back number can be used to identify the location of an originating call, and the location information can then be passed public safety answering point. Unlike traditional land based systems, developing telecommunication networks often associate telephone numbers with telecommunication devices or registered users rather than physical locations. Thus, it is often the case that the associated telephone number is not directly correlated to a physical location of an originating call. This can be detrimental to servicing emergency calls. Further, with the ever increasing competition among telecommunication service providers, there is some concern that the call back information may be used for competitive or other marketing reasons. Thus, there is some resistance to sharing callback information between telecommunication service providers. This resistance to sharing call back numbers further inhibits the successful treatment of calls to a public safety answering point.
Hence, for at least the aforementioned reasons, there exists a need in the art for advanced systems and methods to address the needs of the communication industry.